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John 2:1-12
Before the big picture stuff, there are a few contextual things I want to touch on for today’s reading.
First, in this culture, the host was responsible for providing wine throughout the wedding feast, which typically lasted seven days. Running out of wine at the wedding could have had a devastating social and financial impact for the hosts. The wedding celebration had an element of reciprocity that was supported by the law. One could take legal action against a guest who failed to provide an appropriate gift. That is obviously very foreign to us today...maybe not quite as much of a stretch in the south, haha, but still not our typical standard. So, this was important - not running out of wine.
Secondly, the volume of water and wine here is amazing to me. All six jars would have held 120–180 gallons because large quantities of water were needed for ritual purification. Think about that for a second. All of that water was turned into wine - and we are told the water was filled to the brim so there was not way to trick people, they could see it as water one second and wine the next. That’s awesome.
The third thing I wanted to mention - this term “woman”, to which Jesus addressed His mother, this usage is not disrespectful, but a simple, informal form of address. In our vernacular this could sound a little short, slightly disrespectful, and certainly not polite, but that is not an issue here...this is really just the same as addressing her as “mom” in this culture. So, Jesus isn’t flexing or anything here.
For me today, the idea that jumps out at me is that Mary asked Jesus to help, to intervene, and Jesus clearly didn’t have plans to do so based on His response. But, ultimately, He did. It shows that Jesus has a mission and a purpose, but that He also was a person and responded to the situation, and to requests...especially if the requests didn’t hinder the mission. There seems to be a similar tone with respect to God. If I look at how prayer is taught in the New Testament, and what is said about prayer generally, I come away thinking that yes God has a plan and yes God has a purpose for me but that God also isn’t robotic in His application of those ideals, He is responsive. God can and does respond to prayer. Not all prayers. But yes, some prayers.
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By Steve AndersonBefore the big picture stuff, there are a few contextual things I want to touch on for today’s reading.
First, in this culture, the host was responsible for providing wine throughout the wedding feast, which typically lasted seven days. Running out of wine at the wedding could have had a devastating social and financial impact for the hosts. The wedding celebration had an element of reciprocity that was supported by the law. One could take legal action against a guest who failed to provide an appropriate gift. That is obviously very foreign to us today...maybe not quite as much of a stretch in the south, haha, but still not our typical standard. So, this was important - not running out of wine.
Secondly, the volume of water and wine here is amazing to me. All six jars would have held 120–180 gallons because large quantities of water were needed for ritual purification. Think about that for a second. All of that water was turned into wine - and we are told the water was filled to the brim so there was not way to trick people, they could see it as water one second and wine the next. That’s awesome.
The third thing I wanted to mention - this term “woman”, to which Jesus addressed His mother, this usage is not disrespectful, but a simple, informal form of address. In our vernacular this could sound a little short, slightly disrespectful, and certainly not polite, but that is not an issue here...this is really just the same as addressing her as “mom” in this culture. So, Jesus isn’t flexing or anything here.
For me today, the idea that jumps out at me is that Mary asked Jesus to help, to intervene, and Jesus clearly didn’t have plans to do so based on His response. But, ultimately, He did. It shows that Jesus has a mission and a purpose, but that He also was a person and responded to the situation, and to requests...especially if the requests didn’t hinder the mission. There seems to be a similar tone with respect to God. If I look at how prayer is taught in the New Testament, and what is said about prayer generally, I come away thinking that yes God has a plan and yes God has a purpose for me but that God also isn’t robotic in His application of those ideals, He is responsive. God can and does respond to prayer. Not all prayers. But yes, some prayers.